Anyone not doing history ala WTM?

[Quiver0f10]

I keep being pulled towards textbooks for all my children instead of lit based learning. I love literature based learning, but they have been asking for textbooks. So I am thinking of switching to the texts and also doing a lit program such as CLE or BJU, but I still want them to read whole books.

 

Maybe require then to read X amount of books from one of the great book list such as http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html .

 

Tell me I wont be ruining them if we go this route?

[coffeegal]

You won't be ruining your children if you use textbooks instead of living books. :001_smile: Actually, I've been reading articles on titus2 (author of MOTH) about how their family switched to textbooks and am tempted to do so myself.

 

Best of luck!

[Gretchen in NO. CA]

My oldest is in 10th grade and is a really struggling student. I have always loved Literature based programs and we have done Sonlight, Beautiful Feet, Tapestry of Grace, and just plenty of books from WTM. I keep thinking that using a Literature approach will make the subject come more alive and he'll get more out of it. But that hasn't happened with him My other 5 kids love a literature approach so far) so I'm switching him to a history textbook. I don't know if he'll do better, but it will be the format that he'll use in college so that will be good. I was just looking at Abeka history last night and I liked that it had frequent review questions, a study guide, quizzes and tests. At least it will be easier to hold him accountable for learning the info. We'll see if it works better for him.

 

I remember a post from Luann in Idaho who said her oldest daughter prefered text books and SWB said that some kids do better with that also. So go for it if that is what your kids are asking for!

[Alphabetika]

After years of lit-based history, my dd actually asked me for something more structured, with questions and tests, etc. She started using Notgrass American this year (9th grade) and she loves it. She reads the whole books for literature, and I have given her additional reading assignments. She is not ruined. I'm learning that I can't idolize any one method of homeschooling or of learning, even if it's the way I've dreamed of doing it, or the way I would have loved learning at her age. Learning lasts a lifetime - a few years of more structured texts will most likely not prove fatal. :tongue_smilie: Just a word of encouragement!

[Cinder]

I needed to read this thread for all the encouragement. I too love lit and whole books style for history and had hoped this would inspire my ds's to enjoy the subject. But they just don't and older ds is the type that thrives on tests and grades rather than discussion. So for the first time I'm actually considering a history textbook. Good to hear I won't be ruining my kids. :tongue_smilie:

 

Cinder

[Sharon in MD]

doesn't work for you or them! And even then, I don't know that I'd say it would "ruin" them...

 

I would have loved to go the WTM route, but it was clear it wouldn't really work for our ds. I had tried all through the elementary years to do the literature based, Charlotte Mason type of thing for history and I put tons of effort into it, on my part....and it just was not paying off.

 

So, in 7th and 8th grades we used A History of US by Hakim, since we had not done any use, following Sonlight's guide, more or less.

 

Then in 9th, we went to the full text book route with BJUP's Geography...skipped social studies all together in 10th, in 11th did US with Notgrass (Am History is required in my area as a high school credit and what we did in 7th and 8th wouldn't count) and I added the TTC History of the United States....all of a sudden my ds likes history. I think it was the combination of a text he enjoyed, good source material, and excellent LECTURES (go figure!). Now this year we are using Spielvogel's Western Civ as a text, which we both really like reading, and TTC's lectures on Ancient history (Early Civ, Greece, Rome) for the fall and Ren/Ref for the Spring.

 

I've been thrilled with TTCs video lectures. We both love them and he is learning to take notes from a professor's lectures with daily practice. For me, that is an important step that I wasn't sure how to teach, so just doing it daily is very helpful.

 

Anyway, Jean, you are doing a great job with your kids and you have to adapt to what will work best for you and the kiddos....even though I aspire to a Great Books ed, it isn't going to happen here, at least not right now. I don't think my son would have had the maturity to handle until this year, so I don't think it would have done us much good to push ahead and try to MAKE it happen.

 

Trust yourself.

 

:001_smile:

[asta]

We are using TRISMS, which definitely isn't a "whole books" approach. It has excerpts. If the student finds an interesting topic, he/she can then seek out the original texts.

 

An interesting side note about textbooks: I pulled down one of those "sample SAT subject test" things the other day (history? geography? I don't know). The very first question asked something obscure about the Maya. It got me thinking - are PS kids actually getting obscure details about Mayan civilizations in their social studies classes to be able to answer such questions? Are their texts being written to cover such things? I mean, we hear much about "teaching to tests".

 

The funny thing was, doing TRISMS, we had just studied the Maya, and DS actually knew the answer. If we had been doing "whole books", he wouldn't have known the answer.

 

As much as I would love for DS to have a beautiful, truly "classic" classical education, the testing system that exists as a series of locks and gates between him and higher education is not based on that "type" of information; it is based (unfortunately) on textbooks.

 

So I am left giving him the best combination that I can come up with that will educate him, but also allow him to navigate a system that would otherwise seem quite foreign.

 

 

asta

[Quiver0f10]

Thank you for the replies. I have this battle with myself each and every year and it's driving me nuts lol. I need to make a descsion and just stand firm in it. I appreciate you all sharing what has worked for your family and that your children are thriving without a lit based study.

[Bev in B'ville]

Last year I let my dd take an online history course through SO. It was a great experience for her. They used a textbook (of course), but the best part was the dialogue between her and her fellow classmates and teacher. The class was World History I and I had her take Western Lit to Dante as well to tie in what she was studying in history with the prevalent works of the time.

 

This year she's taking World History II and English Lit. Again, the two work teogether very well. Next year when she's taking American History, she'll take American Lit.

 

I have no problem splitting them up now. That's how they'll be taught in college. When dc were younger I used Sonlight which combines SOTW with fictional literature of the time. My dc loved that, but I felt they were missing out somehow.

 

Anyway, just my $.02.

[Gwen in VA]

We split up the study of history and literture starting in 10th grade. Before that, we follow a vaguely WTM approach.

 

After 9th grade, the kids start doing online lit and history courses (which divide up the subjects obviously) and then by 11th grade they are doing AP courses in the various subjects.

 

Even in 9th grade, we are only vaguely WTM. I feel that learning how to learn from a textbook is a VERY fundamental skill that kids need to learn, so our 9th grade history is a mish-mash of textbook learning and great books.

 

The lovely thing about using the great books approach in junior high is that my kids got hooked by great literature. In high school they are usually reading something "worthwhile" and oftentimes that book does relate to what they ar studying in history because they got curious about the period.

 

i admire the WTM approach, but we have not followed it in high school at all.

[Beth in SW WA]

Textbooks here for high school history & lit. I'm not brave enough -- nor equipped -- to do TWEM-style. I need a TM w/ answers :)

[Kareni]

We began homeschooling my eldest in 7th grade, so we did a three year rotation through history a la (somewhat) the WTM method. In 10th she did AP US history in an out of the home class; in 11th she did likewise with Comparative Gov't and Politics. Both of these classes used textbooks. It's been a good combination of approaches for her.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Joan in GE]

With all this talk about lit textbooks and me wondering how to discuss with my ds, it seems like some of you have gone a different route. So now I'm curious what the good lit textbooks are and if there are teachers editions with prepared tests?

 

Thanks,

Joan